Good list, Nuke.

1. Failing to provide proper escorts for capital ships and ocean convoys is DUMB ---- with a capital "D".

2. Yup. Anti-aircraft regiments are one of the key components in winning any serious air war. Anti-tank regiments make excellent tank traps, especially in cities where armor strength and tank hit points are reduced by 50%. Both units, however, must be employed in sufficient numbers and supported by infantry or other units so they are not killed too easily and before they can inflict maximum damage on enemy attackers. Also, small correction: both L1 AT and L1 AA units move at 20 kmh, and L3+ AT units and L5+ AA units later graduate to 25 kmh.

3. Most players, even most experienced players, gratuitously use their infantry as cannon fodder. Infantry serves an important purpose in not only capturing cities, but in supporting AT and AA units in a variety of other terrain environments. Conventional infantry are the only ground unit that does not suffer some strength reduction in at least one type of terrain. That said, I rarely maintain more than 20 to 25 conventional infantry regiments, but I will add more commando units and mechanized infantry regiments when available.

4. This is your only point with which I take issue: I am not a fan of 50% complete L1 air bases in every province. Having a new L1 air base appear in a handy spot can give you a significant tactical advantage when your opponent does not see it coming. That said, an aircraft unit takes 15 minutes to refuel at a 100% complete L1 air base, and 30 MINUTES to refuel at a 50% complete L1 air base. If your opponent has rockets or a decent size air force of his own, that 30-minute refueling window provides a ready-made trap for any of your air units that are using that 50% complete air base.

5. Artillery, both conventional and self-propelled, are by far the most under-rated and under-utilized units in the game. And many players who do use them, misuse them, either by placing them on the front line of attack, or by failing to provide adequate AA protection when firing from behind the line. I could write a dissertation on this topic, but let's just say that arty is one of the key standoff (or ranged) weapons that can help you reduce your own casualties while inflicting disproportionately large losses on your opponents. For tactical bomber fans, arty is also the perfect complement to your tactical air force, either working in tandem, or arty working solo when your TBs are occupied elsewhere.

I agree (and use extensively) artillery and bombers to be force multipliers on the battlefield. I have placed in numerous games by using these correctly. I am now playing my first Antarctic game and again artillery is killing both the NPC and real players. This game is a great example of the criticalness of foot infantry. the whole map is dominantly mountain, making tanks less than great. Heavy use of infantry negates the mountain terrain. I think the secret to success is infantry, arillary and bombers. I disagree with Nuck's comment on the TBs. They are crushing formations with out AA, and in sufficient numbers, with fighters as HP takers, can heavily influence both players and AI.

@m1tanker632: If you like infantry in the mountains, where tanks and all other armor suffer reduced strength, you will love commandos. Personally, I think the in-game commando battalion is ridiculously over-powered, but until the developers reduce its strength to something within the realm of reality in comparison to other ground units, I am going to use them as my primary form of non-motorized, non-mechanized infantry. The commando battalion (half a regiment, as you know) is twice as strong as a conventional infantry regiment, is stronger on offense than defense, and is stronger than most armor units in urban and mountain environments, and they have 25 hit points vs. 15 for conventional and motorized infantry, and 20 for mechanized infantry. Moreover, because the commando unit is only a battalion, not a regiment, it only consumes about half as much food as other infantry units.

Try them in pairs (think of it as the full 75th Ranger Regiment), not single battalions, for best results, and they will simply overwhelm single ground units of most other types in mountains and cities.

Yeah Montana, I don't use them enough...I will have to change my use of them. To bad you can only make them in your capital.

Have to agree on the list in some areas.

1. No durrrr. May be good for the start of the map, when naval units simply do not exist, but that's about the only time units should travel across the water unescorted. Anything unescouted beyond that stage is suicidal.

2. I never build enough of those... I usually just use light tanks to counter the enemy light tanks. and have never really gotten into an airwar, in my entire CoW career. Not a frequent player, though.

3. That is actually the key reason why I have basically never build medium tanks after conquering someone else's territory(back when I had that much territory)... Mediums require level 2 infrastructure, whereas lights only require level 1. It only takes 24 hours to get a fully set up industrial center to the point where it can produce light tanks, compared to 3 days for mediums. Combining that with the SPG's(those got changed to only require level 1... right?), you can get a pretty mobile and hard hitting force up and running in a matter of a few days compared to almost a week. Light tanks are 'good enough', most times. But I also tend to use normal infantry a lot more than the others, again due to how long it takes to upgrade the barracks beyond level 1... Even if the others tend to be a ton faster. Again, 'good enough' tends to dominate for me. And I use them for cannon fodder, but I don't just haphazardly throw them at the enemy in an attempt to get rid of the units.

4. ... Going to be honest, that is a waste of resources right there. There is literally no sensible reason to have every province with airbases. You do it AS REQUIRED, not AT THE START. Or if you do do that, you don't go willy nilly with airbase construction. It means your economy gets going slower, you have less resources, and arguably more important, money to spend on other buildings, which are far more vital at the start of the game. And there is also the small fact your never going to use even HALF of the airbases you end up building, if you ever use any of them at all. A good network of level 1 to 2 runways is better than a core cluster of .5 runways, 19 times out of 20. You usually have ~30 core provinces when playing, and the amount of resources spent on .5 level airbases is astronomical compared to some economical level 1 runways placed strategically in your cores to facilitate air travel. You can spend the rest on upgrading your economy, and getting pre reques for new unit constructions like railroad guns, motorized infantry, and medium tanks.

5. I actually hated railroad guns up until their recent changes. Now they have some pretty good advantages, not least of which a range that dwarfs everything else in the game except aircraft. Until that, I had much rather have normal artillery over rail road guns. But now I see their use for seige assault and also for use as 'defensive structures'.


Otherwise, pretty good.

In desperation, you can always open your purse and pull out 850 ducats to advance the clock 12 hours.



Goldfinger was a bad man. Heh.

They aren't that important, in my experience. Not so important as to put a 0.5 in every single province. And unlike you, I can actually do geometry using the circles provided by the radia of the level 1 fighter squadron, which gives a good all around basis for airbase construction. Just make them a bit shorter to account for naval bombers, and your done. No need to fiddle around with stopping construction midway, Not having to use half of your resources to attempt building that many air bases on the first day(actually, ALL of your resources, as I'll mention in a minute), and allowing the construction of level 2 airbases on industrial centers, and infrastructure in resource producing provinces, which are far more important. Seriously, I'm not kidding on the exorbant amount of materials. It costs 1000 goods PER airfield. So, to even contemplate trying to build that many airbases at once, you need at minimum, 20000 goods. You don't start off the map with 20000 goods. Period. And I'm not spending that much for essentially useless airbases. Anything LOWER than level 1 is only good for when you are the process of building up airbases and you need to get aircraft to get from point A to point B to fight in another's war. Anything less than 1 barring that exception are completely useless, in my opinion. And also from my experience, aircraft aren't a big deal until later into the game. I prefer light tanks, honestly. And also, tacts are just a hassle to obtain without spending a good chunk of gold to get the airbases required in a short period of time. I usually prefer making units which do not require days of infrastructure to set up, excluding warships. Light tanks can usually be made in any province that had some level of infrastructure, and if it gets destroyed, it takes less than a day to repair. As opposed to tacts, which require you spend a day rebuilding the level 2 airfield and also upgrading certain provinces with air bases. They are good, but they are auxiliary to the ground units, which should be first priority in any early war, and even in later wars, in my rather limited experience. I don't claim to be an expert, but that is how I personally feel about the subject. I've never gotten too far playing the game, sadly, so I never really get to implement mixed stack strategy, which is what I'd love to do most times. But I get close.

Sorry Nuke, but Nova is right.

While I understand your core idea behind it, its just throwing away resources.

What you can do, is a halfway solution. Get the important airfields up, and do a few 0,5 airfields as 'auxillary' airfields. I sometimes do that, if I feel that I need that extra bit of flexibility.

On railguns: always loved them, never got around to use them. To use them effectively, you basically need an 'and and and' situation.

So AND strong air (at least as strong as the opponent), AND AA to cover them, AND defensive units (inf/TD/AT) to cover them. But if you are patient, they are very useful. Im actually in a game where my opponent does this. Lets say I can do NOTHING about it. Its a 30 day game and my economy doesnt allow for rockets (produce too few rares), so his railguns are just advancing slowing, bombing everything in their path. Id only wish they bumped their antiship somewhat more (think Guns of Navarone), their regular stats are now fine as they are.

These are good tips especially for 25 maps were navies and airorces ARE LIFE!!! To bad Im playing as Italy fighting U.K who has his massive navy doing raids

I am just playing for about 3 weeks actively and I gotten to like the game. Figured out most of the things by playing some "trail runs" and I would add one thing.

Jeeps are fast and if you want to expand the territory fast to create a buffer zone and to conquer small countries at the start of the game it is great to use them in the combination with those few planes you got. You bomb the shit out of the enemy and follow up with jeeps. This way you can get small countries in matter of hours.

I use jeeps to encircle the enemy with the support of air cover.

I use Heavy bomber in combination with mobile Tank divisions which all have at least 5 regiments of heavy artillery to advance the line.

I use Infantry to pacify the conquered areas and to protect AA Units.

I use Heavy Ships, cruisers and battleships as coastal artillery when I am taking over coastal regions.

Destroyers I use for anti submarine warfare and Submarines to hunt down enemy ships.

(Economy is the key and to have airports all over the place. Dominion of the air will give you eventually dominion of the ground).

I think each player finds their own combination that works for them. I am still testing tactics and seeing what it works. The only gripe I have is the inhumanely long game play.

Now, you know how Churchill felt, 1939-45. It's added "realism".

You don't need them on very province in your core. Period end of story. THAT is a waste of resources, and by the time I am finished building infrastructure and whatnot, I am lucky to build one or two airbases that will transport my SINGLE fighter around and by about day 5-7 the rest of my airforce. They are important, but every single province is just...illogical.